Forage quality has never been more important than right now. With record feed prices, higher forage rations are not just desirable, they are the key to thriving in the dairy business.
Timely harvest is the most critical step in achieving forage quality. Check out my previous post and stay tuned to our scissor cut sample results to hit the optimum harvest window. The rainy weather this spring may have you worried, though. How will you squeeze in enough good days to get that great stuff in the silo? Wide swathing may be just what you need.
The graph above shows results from Tom Kilcer in 2010. With a full swath mowed at 9:00 am, hay was ready to chop by mid afternoon, with tedding right after mowing it was ready by 11:30. In 2004, a very wet May, we measured drying rates in very challenging drying conditions. Grass mowed into a wide swath dried about 1% point per hour, if tedded right after mowing it dried at 2% points per hour, in a windrow it did not dry at all.
If the weather is really challenging, or your mower won't make a swath of at least 90% of the cutter bar width, try tedding for silage harvest. It means another trip over the filed, but great quality hay in the silo may be priceless come next winter.
Wide swathing can turn a one day weather window into grass in th silo. If the present weather trend continues, one day windows may be all we get.
Wide swathing is still worth doing even if we have great weather. The rapid dry down saves sugars, yielding higher energy silages. Silage at the correct moisture has lower soluble protein, helping more forage fit in a ration.
2011 may just the right time to give wide swath haylage a try.
Dale Dewing
